Four Points of the Compass
by Matthew DeNina
Summary: I know, I know. You're groaning right? "Not another KH fanfiction..." Read this one, though. I have good ideas!
1. Where We Left Off

_Here's a nifty little fanfiction I began writing after beating Kingdom Hearts. I've never, ever, ever played Chain of Memories, so many of the things I say in this FF are probably wrong. Bare with me, please. _

_For those of you who haven't finished the game, I'm sorry, but you probably won't catch on right away. The ending is too complicated to explain here. Just Google something like "kingdom hearts ending summary" or something. _

_I can tell you now, this FF isn't going to have any RikuxSora. Mind you, I have nothing against RikuSora shippers, it just isn't plausible that a RikuxSora pairing would actually happen in the next game or any games to follow._

_Okay, so the "four points of the compass" are Sora, Kairi, Riku & Mickey, and Donald & Goofy. I haven't gotten to that point in the story yet; I'm just explaining the title to you. 'Salright? 'Sokay._

**Chapter One-  
Where We Left Off---The Eastern Point**

"You've given me too many things, Sora. But you're all I need."

Kairi's stone fell from her hand, seeming heavier than it should have been. She'd been speaking to the wall seemingly, but she was actually adressing Sora. She looked at the wall, smiling at the completion of her work. The image now showed she and Sora sharing paopou fruits with one another. She wiped her tears away gently, careful to not get dust in her eyes.

She lifted herself up from the ground, neglecting the mud on her knees and hands and switching her position from kneeling to sitting. While staring at the murals on the wall, specifically the one she'd just added to, she replayed the events that had just taken place in the past weeks, especially the last few hours. In two hours' time, she'd lost both of her best friends and been sent back to Destiny Islands alone, with no explanations or companions.

"When you went away, I wish I could have said, 'Please don't go.'"

According to what she _did_ understand of the heartless and Kingdom Hearts and other worlds, she should have been sent to Hollow Bastion, the world she was born in. Of course, that's where her understanding ended. Nothing made sense anymore, ever since those dark creatures had arrived a few weeks ago on the island.

Kairi turned as somebody whispered her name. The voice had come from the entrance of the secret place and was soon answered by another voice, the second masculine in contrast to the first's girliness.

"Kairi?" one voice asked.

"You see Kairi?" another replied.

"No, I think I hear her. Kairi, is that you?"

"Selphie?" Kairi asked back. "Yes, It's me."

"Kairi!" said Tidus and Selphie in unison. They both ran to her and bawled tears of happiness, Tidus trying to hide the fact that he had the ability to cry.

"Where have you been?" Kairi asked them in between her own sobs.

"We've been here! Where have you been?" Selphie replied.

"I can't even really answer that," Kairi explained. "I've been so many places, entirely new worlds and everything."

"And you did all this in a night?" Tidus asked.

"A night? What are you talking about? I've been away for at least a month."

"Last night, there was a storm," Selphie said. "This morning none of you were in your beds and the raft was gone. We thought you'd run away. But then about an hour ago at noon, the raft washed in and now you're here. Are you okay?"

"No. No, I've been gone for weeks. You're right about the storm. There was a storm. I was worried about the raft blowing away, so I ran to Sora's house to get his help anchoring it better, but he wasn't there. Then I looked around Riku's island and Riku was like, swallowed by this puddle of darkness. He just disappeared. Then some weird key sword showed up in Sora's hand and he fought this big, black monster and was swallowed by another puddle of darkness. I was grabbed by a man and brought to this place where they kept me in a glass case and where I slept almost all the time.

"Then, one day Riku showed up where I was and I was excited. I thought he was going to save me, but then I saw he was making a deal with the man who brought me there. He turned all dark and evil. Sora came. He and Riku had to fight each other, and I sort of felt like it was my fault they were fighting. Sora won and I don't really understand what happened next. I was released from that glass case and I went to this other world, Traverse Town, where I stayed with some of Sora's friends. Sora stood up to the man that had captured me. When I went to talk to him, the ground cracked and he went one way while I went the other. Now, I'm here, and I'm confused."

Tidus and Selphie stared at Kairi, a questionable look on each of their faces.

"Um...Kairi, are you sure you didn't just hit your head really hard or something?" Tidus asked.

Selphie smacked Tidus in the back of his head and whispered, "Tidus, shut up!"

"No, it's okay," Kairi said. "I probably did just hit my head or something. Like, none of that could happen. There's no way I'm a princess."

"Princess?" Selphie asked.

"Oh, um, I mean...nevermind."

"You're so weird," Tidus said, to be answered by a nother smack in the back of the head. "I mean...you're so creative."

**End of Chapter One. Please read and reply!**


	2. Behind The Door

_If you noticed, in the earlier chapter I worked in lyrics from "Simple and Clean" into Kairi's first two things of dialogue. In this chapter, the first two lines are adapted from "Hikari" and a poem by Riku is portrayed as the direct lyrics of "Hikari" with the English translations after each stanza. All of those lyrics are copyrighted to Utada Hikaru._

**Chapter Two-  
Behind The Door---(The Southern Point)**

"It's pitch black."

"Take the light."

"Thanks."

"You've never complained about the darkness before, Riku. We've been in here at least a week and it's never bothered you."

"Yeah, well...I'm going to write something."

"Write what?"

"A letter. Well, a poem. A poem letter. To Sora and Kairi. In case I never see them again, maybe they can get the letter."

Mickey didn't respond, so Riku took the lantern, lit it, and went to sit against the door. He crouched down and began writing with pen and paper he'd taken from Mickey a few days ago. As he touched the pen to the paper, the words seemed to write themselves. Of course, he'd known what he wanted to say for a long time. Being kept in a locked room with nothing to do but fend off heartless brings about lots of thinking.

"_**Donna toki datte  
Tada hitori de  
Unmei wasurete  
Ikite kita no ni  
Totsuzen no hikari no naka me ga sameru  
Mayonaka ni**_

_No matter what the time  
Im just alone  
Destiny forgotten,  
Even though I kept going.  
Inside of the sudden light I awaken  
In the middle of the night_

_**Shizuka ni deguchi ni tatte  
Kurayami ni hikari o ute**_

_Quietly,  
Stand in the exit way,  
And, in the pitch-black, take the light_"

The poem described Riku's situation with infallibility. He was alone in the sense that he'd lost his friends. Only Mickey, a person he'd only met just before being locked behind the door, was with him. The things he was acquainted with most were the heartless, his former colleagues, now his worst enemies.

His destiny forgotten, he'd basically sacrificed himself to provide oppurtunity for the futures of his friends. Though he did what he thought was right, joining Ansem because he thought it was the only way to save Kairi, Riku could not help but blame himself for all the events that had taken place with Ansem and the heartless.

For that last half of his week in Kingdom Hearts, Riku had been having a recurring dream in which he was falling from a building. He would always awake right before he hit the ground. It was beginning to scare him, but he said nothing to Mickey, assuming the king was already busy enough as it was.

Riku's current objective was to get out from behind that door without releasing the heartless once more. How to go about doing this was a mystery to him. He hadn't fully comprehended ,in the time he was given, what the consequences of his choice to be locked behind the door would be. He later realized he should have tried to come up with an alternate way. Though, the option he'd chosen would probably gain praise from other people, and that was a definite plus side.

He folded up the piece of paper and tried sliding it under the door. It was sealed, and there were no cracks anywhere, so he let it sit by the door. He picked up the pen and lantern and went back towards Mickey.

"Riku," Mickey said quietly, almost inaudibly.

"What?" Riku said, loud in comparison to the king.

"There's a group of hreatless headed our way."

"How can you always tell?"

"They walk so loud, how can you not hear them?"

"Oh, I never made the connection between the loud, bumpy sounds and the heartless. Everything in sight has blended together to me, and so has everything within earshot. I just can't tell the difference between things anymore."

"Well get ready anyway. They're almost here."

At the word "here", a shadow latched on to Mickey's leg. Mickey responded by taking a step to the right and swinging his keyblade backwards to send the shadow flying into the darkness.

Almost immediately, swarms of hearless surrounded the two.

"Watch my back. I'll watch yours," Riku said, and the two stood back to back, ready to pounce upon their foes.

Riku burst through the first row of shadows, killing three with one swing. He then proceeded to slice at an invisible, the type of heartless he found particularly annoying. The invisible transformed himself into six balls of purple and black fire that circled Riku's body and then closed around him to produce a terrible pain. The invisible went back to his original state to be met by three slices in a row of Riku's weapon, the same three slices that destroyed it.

Riku then advanced to a small group of shadows which he destroyed one by one in a more stylish way than was needed. It was almost as if he were showing off, flaunting his weapon work.

Behind him, Mickey rampaged amongst the shadows, fighting two at a time during certain times by swinging at one, then at another while first recovered, then at the first while the second recovered and so on. As he finished clearing one section of the room, he went on towards where Riku was fighting. He sliced through a collection of shadows. His keyblade stopped with a clang, which made him jump, afraid that he'd stumbled upon a powerful heartless.

Riku thought the same when his weapon met another with a clang. Both were relieved to find that they had only met up with each other.

Mickey nodded to Riku, and Riku nodded back. They charged at the final row of heartless which consisted of twenty or so shadows. Each of them took ten, coincidentally finishing at the same time. They froze. Riku breathed heavily and did the best he could to scan the area for more heartless. He saw no sign of any. Mickey relaxed and put away his keyblade. Riku strapped the wingblade to his back and sat down next to Riku.

"So," Riku said, struggling to form the word through deep inhales and exhales. "You did good."

"You too," Mickey replied.

Riku smiled, "All in a hard day's work."

**End of Chapter Two**


End file.
